Re: What are the highest FICO scores ever reported on this forum?

jello77:

It's great to see someone who shares a similar FICO profile. For a couple of years, I had an 839 Experian score. Then, for no apparent reason, my score dropped to 831. When my oldest account's age increased from 29 to 30 years, my score soared to 842. I discussed this occurrence here:

Re: What are the highest FICO scores ever reported on this forum?

You can't get to 850 with any of the FICO scores that are being pulled by any of these posters. You can get to 850 with at least two, and probably 6, of the FICO 8 based Non-Industry scores. Since the term "Classic" is now dropped and there is now a "Mortgage Industry" score with FICO 8, it is getting a bit confusing again or should I say still confusing.

Using the term "perfect FICO score of 850" is very misleading at this point. It would probably be most accurate to call any EQ Beacon 5.0 above 815, any TU FICO Classic 04 above 835, and any EX FICO II above 840 to be "perfect, or so close it doesn't matter".

Edited: to change the second sentence to double the numbers. My initial version was correct for the full range of 300-850 but not for just reaching an actual 850.

Re: What are the highest FICO scores ever reported on this forum?

GregB,

Thanks for this additional information. The details you provide are most interesting and something I have never seen mentioned before.

If the study I cited above actually did involve scores that were literally at 850, am I correct in assuming it must have used FICO 08 model scores, because other models do not allow score to actually reach 850?

Also, can you tell me what "edition" of FICO are EQ Beacon 5.0 and EX FICO II. Are they 98, 04, or 08?

Re: What are the highest FICO scores ever reported on this forum?

EQ Beacon 5.0, TU 04, and EX FICO II are all based upon FICO 04. I am actually not 100% sure about EX FICO II. Everything I have says it is based on FICO 04 but the name seems wrong to me, somehow. EX seems very close with their info.

The "editions" of FICO are 95, 98, 04, and 8. The names seem to have a loose similarity to the year that they were expected to be used except that FICO 8 isn't "08".

They are way off anyway. FICO 8 was "ready" in 2007, FICO 04 in 2000, FICO 98 in 1995, FICO 95 in 1993.

Edited: I forgot part of your question. The first Classic FICO that could actually reach 850 is FICO 8. Previous Industry Option versions could pass 850, at least in theory but don't actually seem to go near 900 in practice. It seems the stuff that actually can help the added Scorecard by the 50 points possible would hurt the base score (Classic) a bit. FICO Next Gen had an Actual Range of 209-897 and the 2003 update was 221-950 in TU versions.

Re: What are the highest FICO scores ever reported on this forum?

Regarding confusion about credit scores:

Part of the problem is that FICO did not originally intend consumers to have access to scores. The multiplicity of FICO editions, versions, and sub-versions were intended only for internal use by the credit industry.

After consumers discovered the existence of FICO scores, they demanded access to them. FICO and lenders had to be dragged kicking and screaming into making them easily available.

Allowing consumers access to something that was never intended for them inevitably caused confusion.

I suspect this is one reason why MyFICO has stuck with the outdated TU98 model when selling scores to consumers. FICO knows that changing to a newer model will cause confusion as people find their scores have gone up or down for no apparent reason.

Re: What are the highest FICO scores ever reported on this forum?

GregB wrote:

The first Classic FICO that could actually reach 850 is FICO 8. Previous Industry Option versions could pass 850, at least in theory but don't actually seem to go near 900 in practice.

Let's say, along these lines and just for the fun of it, that the algorithm for EX operates with a range, whose defined upper end is a number greater than 850, but that upon calculation exit any score greater than 850 is chopped off at 850, for compatibility with EQ and TU. Not a technique entirely unheard of, as credit companies report negative balances as zero. It would statistically result in more EX scores that are "perfect" than for EQ and TU, but the number is miniscule to begin with, in which context it matters little whether the maximum for EQ and TU is 850 or, perhaps more likely, less than 850. How often have you heard of an EQ or a TU greater than 816?

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION: All FICO® Score products made available on myFICO.com include a FICO® Score 8, along with additional FICO® Score versions. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than the versions you receive from myFICO, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more

FICO, myFICO, Score Watch, The score lenders use, and The Score That Matters are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation. Equifax Credit Report is a trademark of Equifax, Inc. and its affiliated companies. Many factors affect your FICO Score and the interest rates you may receive. Fair Isaac is not a credit repair organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Fair Isaac does not provide "credit repair" services or advice or assistance regarding "rebuilding" or "improving" your credit record, credit history or credit rating. FTC's website on credit.